NDP MP Lori Idlout says she's been asked to consider it by Liberal Party members, and some constituents. Nunavut's MP says she has no plans right now to join the federal Liberal Party. “I have decided at this point that I can't,” Lori Idlout told CBC News in an interview on Monday. “I've definitely been asked to consider it.” The...
Canada's former ambassador to Venezuela says Ottawa is "parroting" Washington's anti-democratic line by giving air to the idea of fresh elections in Venezuela. Ben Rowswell, who served as Canada's envoy to Caracas, says Canada should instead be working toward helping install the leaders voters chose in the stolen 2024 election. Rowswell is reacting to a statement issued Tuesday by Foreign...
Prime Minister Mark Carney will meet with President Xi Jinping in Beijing next week as he makes the first official trip to China by a Canadian prime minister in more than eight years. Carney's office confirmed the trip on Wednesday, which comes as the two countries move to restore stronger ties after years of trade and political tensions. The statement...
Donald Trump’s military strike on Venezuela, his designs on Greenland and his government’s declaration of ownership over the Western Hemisphere together represent an existential challenge to Canada, Bob Rae, this country’s former ambassador to the United Nations said Tuesday. Mr. Rae said in an interview that Canadians would be mistaken in thinking they’re not “on the menu” too, meaning “the...
Canada’s former ambassador to the United Nations says recent U.S. military action in Venezuela shows that Greenland and Canada need to take threats to their sovereignty seriously. “The president has created a whole new guessing game of who’s next,” Bob Rae told CTV’s Your Morning on Tuesday. “An attack on Greenland would be an attack on NATO, it would be...
Support for the Liberals and Conservatives remains gripped within the margin of error of the Nanos tracking. Jobs/the economy clearly tops list of national issues of concern.
The research gauged the opinions among Canadians on their opinions on the current federal government, the direction of the country, the relationship between the federal and provincial governments, and Canada’s international reputation.
The good news about the U.S. abduction of Nicolás Maduro is that Venezuela is finally rid of a corrupt, violent and buffoonish leader. The bad news is that the country may soon be under the power of another corrupt, violent and buffoonish leader — Donald Trump — who is itching to use his military might on other countries in the...
Occam’s razor is the principle that the most plausible explanation of events is the simplest. Most often this is true. To account for Donald Trump, however, we need a different hermeneutical instrument. Say hello to Occam’s kazoo: the principle that the most plausible explanation, so far as Mr. Trump is involved, is invariably the stupidest. To understand his motives in...
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis motorist on Wednesday during the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown on a major American city -- a shooting that federal officials claimed was an act of self-defence but that the city’s mayor describged as “reckless” and unnecessary. The shooting happened in a residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just...
NDP leadership candidates are entering the final sprint to sign up members and raise the last of four $25,000 payments required to be on the ballot. The membership cutoff for voting eligibility and the final fundraising deadline both land on Jan. 28. A spokesperson for the Avi Lewis campaign claims he has raised over $751,000 since the campaign began in...
A major geopolitical fault line shifted Saturday morning, as the United States arrested Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro after a quarter century of socialist tyranny. This is a good thing. Canada did not recognize Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela, and with him out of the way, we hope that Venezuelans will finally be able to enjoy freedom and democracy...
Chrystia Freeland appears to have developed a knack for making career moves that shake up Liberal governments. A little more than a year since the former finance minister dramatically exited Justin Trudeau’s cabinet, triggering his departure and a whole new Liberal era, Freeland’s announced plans to step down as an MP have set things in motion for an imminent shakeup...
In the past days and weeks, we have witnessed the Finlandization of Canada. In Finland’s case during the Cold War that meant, in the words of the Finnish political cartoonist Kari Suomalainen, “bowing to the East, without mooning the West.”
From “Dr. New Deal” to “Dr. Win-the-War.” That’s how American President Franklin Roosevelt described his transformation in the days and months following the attack on Pearl Harbor and his country’s entry into the Second World War.
Operation Just Cause in Panama. Operation Midnight Hammer in Iran. And now, Operation Absolute Resolve in Venezuela. The American branding of military interventions is its own propaganda sub-specialty. Of course, that last one — Donald Trump’s January 3rd removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from office and rendition to Brooklyn to face drug trafficking charges — comes with its own...
Like many on the Canadian left, I am disappointed in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s response to the US kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro. “The removal of illegitimate, corrupt, repressive, government leader — uh, Mr. Maduro — is welcome news,” he said this week.
As a child of the 60s and 70s, I grew up on some of the greatest music ever made. And many of the most iconic recordings of that period were inspired by protest, motivated by the rage boiling up in young people over the actions of the U.S. government. It’s said that Neil Young wrote his searing diatribe Ohio in...
THAT WAS QUITE THE interview minister of energy and natural resources Tim Hodgson gave to La Presse in the last days before Christmas. “This document is an alarm signal,” Hodgson told Joël-Denis Bellavance, referring to the Donald Trump administration’s National Security Strategy.
In the calculus of modern-day populism, there is no greater currency than the decisive act. In an unprecedented moment this past week, the world watched as U.S. President Donald Trump cashed in, deploying American special forces to snatch illegitimate self-proclaimed leader of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro from Caracas and deliver him to a New York jail cell. In the immediate aftermath...
Happy New Year. Or not, depending on where you find yourself these days. If you’re deposed Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, that’s in a cell in Brooklyn, N.Y. If you’re U.S. President Donald Trump, that’s on the catbird seat in Washington, D.C. And if you’re Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, that’s on a tightrope in Ottawa, trying to strike the right...
The Liberals and Conservatives offered completely different responses to the Trump administration’s abduction of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro. Those responses reflect the world view of each party. For Conservatives, foreign policy is rooted in values; for Liberals, in interests. On Saturday morning, not long after word arrived that American special forces had captured and abducted Mr. Maduro and his wife...
It seems clear that there was great excitement in the Poilievre household on Saturday morning, as news of the surgical strike by U.S. special forces in Venezuela filtered through. Pierre Poilievre’s wife, Anaida, is Venezuelan, and like many of her fellow citizens, she likely rejoiced in the arrest and deportation of the illegitimate president Nicolás Maduro.
The sensational arrest of Nicolas Maduro for conspiracy and narco-terrorism charges, contrary to the national security interests of the United States, was breathtaking by any measure. The now deposed Venezuelan ruler was captured following a covert U.S. military operation carried out beyond its borders, as special forces infiltrated the presidential compound in the middle of the night, grabbed their target...
Even before the 51st state threats, before the tariffs, before the ICE raids and now the flagrantly illegal attack on Venezuela, Donald Trump was the least popular American president in Canadian history by quite some distance. But if there was a relative bastion of support for America's 45th and 47th president, it was in Alberta — and especially its oil...
If Putin or Xi removed Maduro and said they would be running Venezuela for a while and selling Venezuela’s oil to make profits from it, would you celebrate this as a great step for freedom? Of course not.
The decision by the Trump administration to launch an arrest operation in Caracas, Venezuela, capturing Nicolás Maduro and his spouse Cilia Flores, has profound consequences for all of us. Trump’s triumphal press conference and initial media coverage from US media focused on the level of organization, discipline, technology and expertise required to extract the Maduros in the middle of the...
Over the past year, Prime Minister Mark Carney has demonstrated an ability to push back against bullying by the United States without provoking the bully into a more aggressive response. Canada hasn’t prevailed in every skirmish with President Donald Trump, but our prime minister’s calm resolve has not made the situation worse. Unfortunately, it appears Carney’s role as the nuanced...
Pierre Poilievre is all politics and no business, a weakness that will likely disqualify him from ever becoming prime minister. It is the leadership deficit – eschewing pragmatism, being a one-man team, failing to work with rivals in mind and allies in heart – that members of the Conservative Party of Canada must weigh later this month when they decide...
Narcissists: we’ve all come across them. They are the person at the table that makes every story — even the one you are telling — about them. When your narcissist is just a bad friend or an annoying acquaintance, it’s easy enough to dump them once you realize they have zero empathy and no interest in you, except for what...
Venezuelans are legendary partiers, and the images of dictator Nicolas Maduro in handcuffs aboard a U.S. ship early Saturday morning provided the first excuse in a very long time for a mass celebration – not just on the streets of Caracas, but in Bogota, Buenos Aires, Santiago, New York and places between, where a third of Venezuela’s population has been...
How should we understand the ongoing U.S. regime change operation in Venezuela? First, there is no need to lament the extraction of Nicolás Maduro—an authoritarian leader who executed a policy of economic brutality and forced displacement against his fellow citizens yet remained in power despite receiving far fewer votes than opposition candidate Edmundo González in the 2024 presidential election. Second...
No one need shed a single tear for Nicolás Maduro, a ruthless dictator who extinguished Venezuela’s democracy and set its economy into a death spiral. His sins are many: stolen elections, numerous alleged crimes against humanity, and more than a decade of exploitation of what once was and should still be a prosperous country. And of course, the Trump administration...
The United States has a really bad record when it comes to regime change. Time and again it’s sought to oust foreign leaders and replace them with more favoured replacements. The success rate isn’t great. It was a disaster in Vietnam, at a horrendous cost in life. Cuba, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, … defeat, disappointment, debacle, take your pick. Again and...
The Donroe Doctrine has been put into action and the United States has re-entered the business of regime change in the Americas. Canada can’t keep sitting on our hands and hoping it will all work out. Late Friday night, American might pounded military installations across Venezuela while helicopters full of special forces descended on Caracas to snatch dictator Nicolas Maduro...
The U.S. seized two sanctioned oil tankers linked to Venezuela in back-to-back actions in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean, officials said Wednesday. U.S. European Command announced the seizure of the merchant vessel Bella 1 for "violations of U.S. sanctions." A Coast Guard cutter had pursued the tanker into the waters between Scotland and Iceland after it tried to avoid...
The head of the Royal Canadian Air Force has only been in the job for half a year -- but it's been an eventful period as the force has worked to rapidly overhaul its fleets and turn a corner on persistent personnel shortages. In a wide-ranging interview, Commander Lt.-Gen. Jamie Speiser-Blanchet told The Canadian Press that while change is happening...
Yuri Fulmer said the Conservative Party of B.C. needs to be a "grand coalition" that refrains from "undisciplined" behaviour if it wants to govern, as he becomes the first high-profile candidate to run for the party's leadership. Fulmer, the chancellor of Capilano University who made his fortune with fast food franchises, said that means that the Conservatives have to "welcome...
OTTAWA -- Some First Nations chiefs say Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty's recent refusal to commit to source water protections in a promised clean water bill shows the government is sidelining the health of Indigenous communities in its push to build up the economy.
A Manitoba politician who was kicked out of the governing NDP caucus is suing Premier Wab Kinew and two other New Democrat legislature members. Mark Wasyliw, in a statement of claim, alleges that Kinew, Billie Cross and Ian Bushie defamed him with false and reckless statements during his removal from caucus in September 2024.
Canada and more than two dozen Ukrainian allies have signed a statement pledging to secure Ukraine from further Russian invasions if there is a viable peace deal. The U.K. and France have committed to physical hubs within Ukraine for armed support, but it remains unclear whether Canadian soldiers would be deployed on the ground.
Businessman Charles Milliard is the first candidate to announce he's entering the race to lead the Quebec Liberal Party. Milliard, born in 1979, published a video on social media today in which he promised to fight for Quebecers. The former head of the federation of Quebec chambers of commerce finished second to Pablo Rodriguez in last year's leadership race.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says the future of Greenland will be "solely" up to the people of Denmark and Greenland. Carney was reacting to new comments from U.S. President Donald Trump and members of his administration about his desire to annex Greenland. "There's basic principles here, which is self-determination of nations, sovereignty, territorial integrity. And then there (are) approaches that...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada will continue to build up its military might in the coming years, in part so it's able to play a role in providing security guarantees for Ukraine. Carney is in Paris meeting with Ukraine's allies to discuss the role Canada might play in securing an eventual ceasefire in the war with Russia. At a...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government is working to expand access to oil markets in Asia now that Canada faces the prospect of Venezuelan oil displacing Canadian product in the American market. His remarks came after Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre urged Carney to "immediately approve a pipeline to the Pacific Coast" in an letter shared on social media Tuesday...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Ontario Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland's upcoming resignation from the House of Commons is "consistent" with taking a role as an unpaid economic development adviser for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The wife of Montreal activist and former federal NDP leadership hopeful Yves Engler, barred over alleged harassment, says she has put her name forward for the job. Bianca Mugyenyi shared on social media late Monday that she submitted vetting materials last week ahead of the NDP leadership vote set for March.
President Donald Trump’s push to unlock Venezuelan crude is strengthening the political case for a proposed pipeline that would allow Canada to ship more oil to China and other Asian markets. Refineries in the American Midwest are configured to process Canada’s heavy crude. But prices for the commodity slumped Monday as traders worried that the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolas...
A British Columbia member of Parliament says he's been approached to cross the floor to give Mark Carney's Liberal government a majority, but he's not interested in "betraying" his constituents. Scott Anderson, MP for Vernon-Lake Country-Monashee, says in a post on social media that the Liberals are "pulling out all the stops" to lure Conservatives.
U.S. action in Venezuela, Greenland comments cast shadow on peace negotiations. The catchphrase going into Tuesday's coalition of the willing meeting on Ukraine in Paris appears to be: expect the unexpected. That was clearly the vibe as leaders from the 30-or-so countries, including Prime Minister Mark Carney, gathered in the French capital.
The Canadian government is in wait-and-see mode when it comes to Donald Trump’s military strike on Venezuela, a senior official says, as it tries to determine whether the U.S. President plans unilateral action in other countries. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Canada is in a particularly...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Paris today meeting with Ukraine's other allies to talk about the role Canada might play in securing an eventual ceasefire in the war with Russia. The "coalition of the willing," a group of more than 30 countries pledged to support Ukraine, is gathering in Paris as ceasefire talks reach a critical juncture.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is warning the federal government that the possible end of American sanctions on Venezuelan oil could displace Canadian exports to the U.S. -- and is urging the Liberals to "immediately approve a pipeline to the Pacific Coast." In a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney posted on social media Tuesday, Poilievre said the action taken by...
Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland said Monday she is stepping down as the prime minister's special representative for the reconstruction of Ukraine and will leave Parliament in the coming weeks - hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed her as an unpaid adviser on economic development in his country. "Ukraine is at the forefront of today’s global fight for democracy, and...
VICTORIA -- Vancouver entrepreneur Yuri Fulmer is running for the leadership of the Conservative Party of B.C., with his campaign website going live in advance of an official announcement that's expected this week.
Federal NDP leadership hopeful Rob Ashton is slamming his opponent Avi Lewis as divisive and accusing him of “undermining” provincial New Democrat governments in the first major sign of tensions in the race. The attack, an echo of previous NDP quarrels over oil and gas development, comes weeks before a crucial membership sign up deadline and was brushed off by...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says the American capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro underlines the urgency of building oil pipelines to export Canadian oil to new markets. U.S. President Donald Trump sent political shock waves around the world with the weekend military raid, saying Washington aimed to seize the South American country's oil reserves. Smith says the events "emphasize the...
North American oil prices climbed by more than one per cent on Monday following the upheaval in Venezuela over the weekend, while stock prices of some large Canadian oil and gas companies have fallen. A barrel of West Texas Intermediate, the North American benchmark, was trading about 1.5 per cent higher by midday, up nearly $1 to just over $5...
The Quebec Liberal Party has named an ethics officer to supervise the upcoming leadership race after allegations of wrongdoing sunk the previous leader. Among other responsibilities, the ethics officer will be required to ensure candidates respect financing rules under Quebec electoral law. The party says the role will be filled by Julien Morissette, a lawyer who has experience with the...
Foreign policy experts say Ottawa should reach out to nations threatened by the United States to co-ordinate a response to the Trump administration's actions against Venezuela. The U.S. shocked the world this weekend when it captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a military raid that followed months of airstrikes on Venezuelan boats Washington said were trafficking drugs. Max Cameron, a...
U.S. President Donald Trump's shocking ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro shows his administration is serious about dominating the Western Hemisphere, observers say. In its new national security strategy, released last month, Trump's administration laid out a plan for U.S. control of the hemisphere that pays little heed to traditional alliance-building. It was put into practice Saturday with the U.S...
Ontario government employees are expected to return to the office five days per week starting Monday, despite objections from public sector unions. In August, Premier Doug Ford announced thousands of Ontario civil servants would return to the office full time by January, ending work-from-home and hybrid models that have persisted more than five years after the start of the COVID-1...
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed former federal minister Chrystia Freeland as an adviser on economic development on Monday. Freeland has long expressed her support for Ukraine during its war with Russia, and has said the country could become an economic juggernaut by taking up the opportunities it missed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In a post on social...
Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in Paris Monday ahead of a meeting with Ukraine's allies to pursue security agreements to prevent Russia from repeating its invasion if a ceasefire deal is reached. Members of the group referred to as the "coalition of the willing," which includes Canada, France and other European countries, are meeting Tuesday in an attempt to accelerate...
In 2020, then U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer described the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free-trade agreement (CUSMA) as the “new gold standard against which all future trade agreements will be judged,” after the deal he helped put together was passed in the Senate. Six years later, in 2026, CUSMA will be facing scrutiny on its real-world results as the three countries begin renegotiating...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration has launched what officials describe as the largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out, preparing to deploy as many as 2,000 federal agents and officers to the Minneapolis area for a sweeping crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Republican Doug LaMalfa, a California rice farmer who served seven terms in the U.S. House and was a reliable vote on President Donald Trump's agenda, has died at age 65.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump insisted Tuesday that Republicans have "so many good nuggets" to campaign on this year as they try to hold onto their razor-thin margin in the House.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Voters in northwest Georgia will go to the polls to select a successor to U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on March 10.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis motorist on Wednesday during the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown on a major American city -- a shooting that federal officials claimed was an act of self-defence but that the city’s mayor describged as “reckless” and unnecessary. The shooting happened in a residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just...
The U.S. seized two sanctioned oil tankers linked to Venezuela in back-to-back actions in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean, officials said Wednesday. U.S. European Command announced the seizure of the merchant vessel Bella 1 for "violations of U.S. sanctions." A Coast Guard cutter had pursued the tanker into the waters between Scotland and Iceland after it tried to avoid...
Prime Minister Mark Carney will meet with President Xi Jinping in Beijing next week as he makes the first official trip to China by a Canadian prime minister in more than eight years. Carney's office confirmed the trip on Wednesday, which comes as the two countries move to restore stronger ties after years of trade and political tensions. The statement...
Canada’s former ambassador to the United Nations says recent U.S. military action in Venezuela shows that Greenland and Canada need to take threats to their sovereignty seriously. “The president has created a whole new guessing game of who’s next,” Bob Rae told CTV’s Your Morning on Tuesday. “An attack on Greenland would be an attack on NATO, it would be...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says the future of Greenland will be "solely" up to the people of Denmark and Greenland. Carney was reacting to new comments from U.S. President Donald Trump and members of his administration about his desire to annex Greenland. "There's basic principles here, which is self-determination of nations, sovereignty, territorial integrity. And then there (are) approaches that...
Lisa Van Dusen: Senator Boehm, that was quite a year. Between the trade war, Donald Trump’s renewed undermining of multilateralism, and the geopolitical implications of American degradation — I think Trump’s recent National Security Strategy may have summed it up best as a capstone to 2025. How do you see Trump II, Year One? Sen. Peter Boehm: In foreign policy...
The year 2025 was a year of volatility, experimentation, and recalibration across Asia and Canada. Much of the volatility stemmed from U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff agenda, which upended global trade norms and injected new uncertainty into supply chains. China, meanwhile, pressed ahead with an increasingly assertive industrial strategy, even as it contended with slower domestic growth and structural...
Even modest Canadian engagement with China may be judged less on its merits than on how it is interpreted in the U.S. within a framework designed to ‘wind down adversarial outside influence.’
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
A thorough media scan reveals practically no discussion about this important escalation, which would put Canada among only a few Western navies (the United States, the United Kingdom, and France) that operate submarine-launched land-attack weapons.
You may want to dust off your Bescherelles, Canadian politicos: the battle for the future of Québec is where things are going to happen in 2026. In case you missed it, today the new leader of the Québec Liberal Party, Pablo Rodriguez, announced his resignation. His resignation was precipitated by a terrible, scandalous month for the QLP — one that...
The federal government this week dumped its load of annual statistics about citizens’ use of the Access to Information Act.
Today, Gerry Butts – former principal secretary to Justin Trudeau and current adviser to Prime Minister Carney – is on the show. Butts is also the vice chairman of the global political risk firm, the Eurasia group, which releases a “Top Risks” list every year. We’ll drill down on a few of them, including their number one risk, the “U.S...
David Herle, Scott Reid, Jordan Leichnitz, and Kory Teneycke provide insights on the latest in Canadian politics.
Jim Balsillie joins Steve to discuss how he thinks Canada is sabotaging its own economy, how we have consigned ourselves to being a low value-added petro state, why we are operating from an outdated playbook, and Canada’s productivity crisis. They then discuss a real made-in-Canada approach, why foreign investment is overrated, and how to create a more sovereign future for...
Nicholas Maduro says he’s “not guilty” in his first court appearance in New York after being captured in a US military operation. But, Canadian politicians and Venezuelan-Canadian Alexis Espejo suggest otherwise. Sam talks with Alexis about how it felt to watch the news unfold.
